// Copyright 2004-2010 Castle Project - http://www.castleproject.org/
// 
// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
// You may obtain a copy of the License at
// 
//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
// 
// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.

namespace Fas.Tem.Tool
{
    /// <summary> Interface to simplify and abstract tool handling.
    /// *
    /// Implementations of this class should hold both the context
    /// key for the tool and sufficient information to return
    /// an instance of the tool.
    /// *
    /// </summary>
    /// <author> <a href="mailto:nathan@esha.com">Nathan Bubna</a>
    /// *
    /// </author>
    /// <version> $Id: IToolInfo.cs,v 1.2 2003/10/27 13:54:12 corts Exp $
    ///
    /// </version>
    public interface IToolInfo
    {
        string Key { get; }

        string Classname { get; }

        /// <returns>the context key for the tool
        ///
        /// </returns>
        /// <returns>the fully qualified classname for the tool
        ///
        /// </returns>
        /// <summary> Returns an instance of the tool.
        /// *
        /// Instances returned may be new on each call, pooled, or
        /// the be same instance every time depending on the
        /// implementation.  The object passed to this method may
        /// be used to initialize or create the tool that is returned,
        /// or it may be null if no such data is required.
        /// *
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="initData">an object that may be used to initialize the instance
        /// </param>
        /// <returns>an instance of the tool
        ///
        /// </returns>
        object getInstance(object initData);
    }
}